Saturday, October 12, 2013

Illinois’ Ebbets Field not in Brooklyn?

What
with the Dodgers playing in St. Louis on Friday and Saturday to start off the
final round of the National League playoffs, I was amused by a television report about
the Ebbets Field that exists in one of the Illinois municipalities that is part
of suburban St. Louis.

For
it seems that an upscale residential subdivision in Edwardsville (otherwise
known as the home of the urban campus of Southern Illinois University) was
named after the one-time stadium where the Dodgers played back in the days when
they were from the borough of Brooklyn.

THE
DEVELOPER, ACCORDING to KSDK-TV in St. Louis, was such a Dodgers baseball fan
that the streets in the subdivision were named after such ball club big-names
as Steve Garvey, Tommy Lasorda and Duke Snider.

Of
course, most of the baseball fans who actually live there root for the
Cardinals and aren’t the least bit sympathetic toward the Dodgers – who haven’t
appeared in a World Series since 1988 (the year Kirk Gibson did that funky
arm-pumping thing when he hit that game-winning home run off future Hall of
Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley).

Although
I have to confess to having a knee-jerk reaction to the report. It’s too bad
that an “Ebbets Field Estates” (the formal name of the subdivision) couldn’t
have been built in Brooklyn, rather than Edwardsville.

By
that, I’m referring to the Illinois municipality that is part of the St. Louis
metropolitan area – not the borough of some 2.5 million people that is the
former New York home of the Dodgers. It’s right on the Mississippi River across
from St. Louis, but doesn’t get the straight-ahead view of downtown and the
Arch like East St. Louis does.

EBBETS
FIELD IN Brooklyn. Even if all in Illinois, it has a ring to it that would draw
national attention – even though the municipality has barely 600 residents,
almost all of whom are African-American (it’s the oldest town incorporated BY
black people anywhere in the United States).

Where the name originates

I’m
sure the Brooklyn officials would have gone along, although I suspect the
developers probably wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with the idea.

Brooklyn,
as in Illinois, has so little in the way of business that the Wikipedia page
for the municipality uses a photograph of the village’s “adult entertainment
strip” to illustrate the community.

AND
YES, I should confess that the only reason I personally am aware of Brooklyn,
Ill.’s existence is that I happened to notice it once while driving by on my
way to St. Louis proper. It’s small enough that I guess many people don’t see
it if they don’t specifically know to look for it.

All
the more reason for an Ebbets Field in Edwardsville – a municipality that
claims three one-time major league ballplayers (Lee Wheat, Jason Isringhausen
and Mark Little) among its residents throughout the years.

So
why I am getting all this worked up over an amusing bit of trivia that has
nothing to do with the world of Chicago baseball?

Largely
because this is October, and Chicago is so irrelevant to this time of the
season when it comes to baseball. The 2005 and 2008 seasons were such
aberrations in Chicago baseball history – although seeing both ballclubs blow
it in the first round in that latter season seemed predictable).

IF
NOT FOR this, we’d have to be obsessing over how delusional those Chicago Cubs
fans were who thought seriously that Joe Girardi would ever give up a New York
Yankees managerial post to be a part of the Wrigley Field scene!

Will cause disputes for years to come

While
also having to be concerned about those Chicago White Sox fans who will get all
upset over the sight of Jake Peavy pitching for the Boston Red Sox in their
round of playoffs beginning Saturday against the Detroit Tigers – wondering why
he could never have stayed healthy enough to pitch like his one-time Cy Young
Award-self back when he was with the White Sox.

Even
if outfielder Avisail Garcia (acquired for Peavy in this season’s big trade) goes
on to become a big star for the Sox, it will never fully erase the frustration
of Peavy’s performance – which was a large part of why the White Sox’ Ozzie
Guillen era ended merely with a winning record, instead of a repeat performance
in the World Series.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.